Size-D Implants Saved Woman's Life: Doctor
A firearms expert says it's possible, but saline implants aren't bulletproof vests
By JONATHAN LLOYD
Updated 8:51 AM PDT, Thu, Feb 25, 2010
A Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon says a woman's size-D breast implants might have saved her life when a gunman opened fire at her office.
Lydia Carranza was working at the Simi Valley dental office July 1 when her co-worker, the gunman's wife, was shot and killed.
Carranza was just a few feet away. She survived a gunshot to the chest, but the the bullet left a scar and deflated the implant.
"She's just one lucky woman," Dr. Ashkan Ghavami told the LA Times. "I saw the CT scan. The bullet fragments were millimeters from her heart and her vital organs. Had she not had the implant, she might not be alive today."
Ghavami told the Times he will perform the reconstructive surgery at a reduced cost. He'd like implant companies to donate supplies.
But a spokeswoman for the hospital at which Carranza was treated said it's not a medical issue.
"It's a ballistics issue," Kris Carraway, a spokeswoman for Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, told the Times. "The emergency physician who treated the patient was not aware of the breast implant having any impact or whether or not it saved her life."
An LAPD firearms instructor told the Times it's possible the implant interrupted the velocity of the bullet.
"I don't want to say a boob job is the equivalent of a bulletproof vest," Scott Reitz told the Times. "So don't go getting breast enhancements as a means to deflect a possible incoming bullet."
First Published: Feb 25, 2010 7:25 AM PDT
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